"Gaucho" CJ stepside pickup build - Page 6

Dionysus · 03-10-2009, 10:17 AM

Hey Elmira. Not too far from Bingo either. Nice project(s). Next time I'm through I'll wave at ya!

Dionysus.

**Dr. Marneaus** · 03-10-2009, 12:31 PM

You have the most epic jeeps...ever.

GasAxe · 03-10-2009, 12:49 PM

Great build thread!

Hello... Jeep engineers....are you watching???

One question I had about using the structural adhesive to secure the floor panels. Does the adhesive allow the panels to flex or does it harden completely?

**jscherb** · 03-10-2009, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GasAxe

Great build thread!

Hello... Jeep engineers....are you watching???

I can't imagine why the Jeep engineers would be interested in a build involving a CJ that's been out of production for 25 years!

Or even the Retro Wrangler pickup, based on a model that's been out of production for three years. Now if I were building a JK-based pickup, maybe that would be a different story!

Quote:

Originally Posted by GasAxe

One question I had about using the structural adhesive to secure the floor panels. Does the adhesive allow the panels to flex or does it harden completely?

Due to where I trimmed the replacement panel and fit it in, there won't be any flex. The adhesive isn't designed for high-flex applications.

GasAxe · 03-10-2009, 01:03 PM

Nice. Thanks!

And the Jeep engineers should absolutely pay attention! Anytime someone goes through the labor/cash to make a CJ or Wrangler pickup conversion, it always gets alot of attention. High intrest can turn into high sales.... if they ever produce the Gladiator. C'mon, they are already making J8's!

**jscherb** · 03-10-2009, 04:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr. Marneaus

You have the most epic jeeps...ever.

Thanks... but this one hopefully will be someone else's "epic" Jeep - I'm doing this project to sell. Two "epic" Jeeps is enough for me, don't need to add this one to the collection

**jscherb** · 03-10-2009, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GasAxe

Nice. Thanks!

And the Jeep engineers should absolutely pay attention! Anytime someone goes through the labor/cash to make a CJ or Wrangler pickup conversion, it always gets alot of attention. High intrest can turn into high sales.... if they ever produce the Gladiator. C'mon, they are already making J8's!

Well they're welcome to come visit my Jeeps and study them any time they want.

**jscherb** · 03-10-2009, 04:23 PM

The fender I've been modifying came off a 76 Chevy, and it is in fantastic shape considering it's 33 years old, also considering when I asked the guy I got it from why he didn't have the other one he said "because it rusted away".

But there was one small part of rust on the back flange that I had to repair.

1. The rust was in the outer skin of the fender where it bends over to form the mounting edge. The folded edge is backed up with a thicker flange that's spot welded to the inside of the skin.

2. I cut out the skin much wider than where I thought the rust was, because rust is like an iceberg - you can only see the tip of it. You can see the flange is rusty and pitted also, but it's still basically sound metal. Notice also there's a broken rusted-in mounting bolt on the right of the repair area, I'll drill that out and retap it.

3. I removed all of the rust with a combination of wire brushes, a 2" 3M Clean & Strip disk and a 2" sanding disk in my angle grinder.

4. I sprayed the cleaned flange with so-called "weld through" primer. I say "so called" because I've never had much luck getting great welds trying to weld through it, so I always scrape it away near the center of my welds.

5. Here's the replacement patch I made from 16-gauge galvanized. There's a hole for one of the mounting bolts, and three holes for plug welds to attach it securely to the inner flange.

6. I welded all around the perimeter of the patch to attach it to the skin, and then I plug welded in the three holes to attach it to the underlying flange.

Oh well, sorry to bore you with a mundane rust repair, but this had to be done. Next up: I'll be removing a 3" section from the depth of the fender to make it thinner, which will almost finish the metal work on the fender. So tomorrow we can see the fender in almost final form.

Idaho89YJ · 03-10-2009, 11:14 PM

Your stuff is crazy awesome. I like the fact that it's based off of something that was made, but still unique and a little bit custom. Can't wait to see it finished, the Retro-Wrangler is way cool.

**jscherb** · 03-11-2009, 04:33 PM

Are you guys getting tired of watching this fender get built yet? Don't worry - it's almost done.

The last section is now taken out of the fender - I removed 3" from the depth. Now the fender is correct in all dimensions for the Gaucho. Small photo in the lower right shows how I accurately marked the 3" section to be removed. Accuracy in marking and cutting is key - without that the fender would never go together well enough to look like it was supposed to be this smaller size.

Notice in the bottom left photo there's a rectangular notch out of the back of the fender leg - on the stock Chevy this is where the fender and the bedside step bolted together. Since the Gaucho won't have a step on the side of the bed like the Chevy, I'll have to form new sheet metal to fill this notch. Pics of that tomorrow...

And here's what it looked like before today's work, it was a lot fatter:

nelson1248 · 03-11-2009, 08:23 PM

nice work so far!!! nice build

jeepdude1987 · 03-12-2009, 02:43 AM

WOW!

That is a lot of attention to details. I wish I had time, money, space, and tools to do something like this. You are doing an excelent job I would go insane with all your planning. The mockup is very commendable how did you do that multiple kits or...? You have a gift that borders on obbsesion for detail. I could only do the work you are doing if someone else had the plan, but I'm only 21 so I've got some time to develope some patients. Right now I would just hack and weld basic angle fenders and call it good enough.

When I started to guess what you were going to do to produce your fenders I was like there is no way this guy is going to do that he just can't be willing to spend that much time physically and mentally to do that, but you did and after seeing you do it I know I could, if I pushed myself to think the whole thing through, build an EPIC JEEP like you are and have. I wish I could even conceive buying this kit. Do you know how much you want for it? could you possibly PM me a price you hope to get for it if you have a free minute? I wouldn't be able to buy it in the next 2 years or so probably. So I'm not a potential customer, but I just really wonder what your going to charge for all this custom fab work. I couldn't fathom what the local expert Jeep shop would charge for it, but I worked there so I know it woud really break my bank.

Keep up the inspiring and impressive work!!!

Ziptie2k2 · 03-12-2009, 05:01 AM

The worst part is that it hasn't been a lot of time actually, he's just that d*** good! Very nice work. I think another great part is your documentation of the work so the new owner can appreciate it.

**certifiablejeep** · 03-12-2009, 05:24 AM

It does beg the question though, if this were to be a bolt on kit, you would probably be better off having a die made and stamping out fenders, or figuring out another way to make them very quick.

If the "kit" was just instructions and the end user had to do all this work, you would end up with a variety of implementations. As the 21 year old view of this with slapping angle fenders together vs. say a much older(wiser) view of the project who might want to recreate this down to the exact detail you are doing, well, basically you would end up with 2 different creatures.

Custom cars/trucks/Jeeps are great, but if you were going for consistency across the design and then allowing modifications from there, you need stamped fenders, tubs, etc. to get it all looking the same.

Just my $.02

cb

**jscherb** · 03-12-2009, 05:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by certifiablejeep

It does beg the question though, if this were to be a bolt on kit, you would probably be better off having a die made and stamping out fenders, or figuring out another way to make them very quick.

If the "kit" was just instructions and the end user had to do all this work, you would end up with a variety of implementations. As the 21 year old view of this with slapping angle fenders together vs. say a much older(wiser) view of the project who might want to recreate this down to the exact detail you are doing, well, basically you would end up with 2 different creatures.

Custom cars/trucks/Jeeps are great, but if you were going for consistency across the design and then allowing modifications from there, you need stamped fenders, tubs, etc. to get it all looking the same.

Just my $.02

cb

When I use the term "kit", I don't mean to imply that I'm going to make more than one of these. What I mean is that I plan to build a set of parts that's ready to assemble with no further fabrication on the part of the buyer - this will be a wrench job for the buyer, no welder or fab required.

But... I am considering making fiberglass molds of the fenders when I finish them. Seems like too much work to let them go as a one-off. I don't know if there would ever be a market for another set of fenders, if you guys think there would be let me know, maybe I will make molds so I can pop out a few more sets of fenders.

But I'm definitely not planning to build more than one Gaucho "kit".